Women’s March 2019–Orange County, California! by Marie Cartier

Author (Marie Cartier) pictured on right Photo by: Kimba Wild All other photos by the author.

As I have done in 2017 and 2018, I am showcasing photos of protest and resilience from The Women’s March, which began as a response to the “election” of 2016, and was a show of solidarity of women, especially in response to Trump’s remarks overheard from an Access Hollywood tape that he was entitled to “grab pussy” because he was “a star.” Hence the creation of the iconic “pussy hat” and the many signs which read then and now, “pussy grabs back.” He lost the popular vote by over 3 million, but was still elected. Women grabbed back.

The country erupted with a march that was the largest protest march the US had ever seen, with Los Angles having the largest of those marches. In 2017 organizers had planned for 100,00 and over 750,000 showed up—over three quarters of a million people.

In the previous photo essays you can see what women and others were saying in Los Angles (and mirrored around the globe).

This year, I went to Orange County, CA. Famously in the 2018 midterm election, the Orange Curtain came down—and now Orange County of California is blue! Many protesters celebrated this new blue wave. Since Santa Ana is a city with a huge Latinx population, many protesters held signs illustrating solidarity with immigrants and an embedded protest was staged against deportations. Also showing was what is happening with the “promise” of DACA, the health of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the upcoming elections, and overall girlhood. These were all some of the rather recent illustrations of protest at this year’s Women’s March.

You can read more about the Women’s March, Orange County here, here and here.

And if you’d like to see my full albums from this year’s march in Orange County please check here and here.

When we look back at the power of resistance that is being created through these marches, we see an increasing move towards incorporating girlhood and young women into feminism, global concerns and Intersectionality. #IBelieveHer was strong this year, as well as #MeToo.

Hooray! My daughter-in-law was at the march, too. She showed me a photo taken of her with you and someone else. Your photos and your activism are truly admirable. I’m having dreams now that Speaker Pelosi adjourns the House mid-afternoon of January 29 and TURNS THE LIGHTS OFF. Next day? Subpoena power in action!!! And I still love the pussy hats. Y’all go, girls!

I love that sign, WOMEN ARE THE WALL AND TRUMP WILL PAY. For instance, that wonderful, fascinating woman Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and who keeps challenging the President, though never really unkindly, but rather somehow amazing and playfully serious and humorous. Even when she mocks Trump on the wall, Pelosi says: “It’s like a manhood thing for him.”